Review Overload!

Gah, hung over again. I need to stop going out, it's making me skint and just ill.

We've got a real review overload at the minute on BXB, it seems like every single member of staff is writing a review on everything from The Darkness to Armoured Core 4!

Just when we thought it couldn't get any busier, Project Sylpheed, Vampire Rain and Tenchu Z all arrived together and I had to do emergency phone calls and postal action to get them sent off to writers to get them back before release on Friday.

I've got Project Sylpheed to review and I've been playing it today. It's not bad but it's also not amazing. The controls feel like they were made for a Dual Shock Pad but there is a customisation option which makes it a little easier to play.

Visually the game is really good and the cut scenes are as dramatic, cinematic and as cool as you'd expect from any Square Enix title! So, really mixed feeling about the title at the minute.

We'll have our full review up before the week is out, along with loads of other games including The Darkness on Monday when the embargo gets lifted.

Keeley Karma Kalamity

See what I did with the headline? Clever eh? Still not as funny as The Sun's 'Con Heir' when Paris Hilton got locked up (Obviously).
Anyway, so I've just had a wireless network put in my house and my PC is running on it. There's been a few teething problems but it's all sorted now except for one thing...

It won't let me go to the galleries on www.keeleyhazell.com. Seriously, I can visit any website at any time and it works perfectly well, the moment I try and visit the Official Gallery for Keeley Hazell the network shuts off and causes my PC to crash.

How can the internet turn on me like this?! How can it stop me from looking at Keeley's boobs?! Just look at how awesome she is. Why oh why internet?! WHHYY?!



Is this some wierd karma thing telling me I need to get a girlfriend and stop looking at Keeley's boobs?

I hope not.

No Sh*t....

"Recent research by the BBFC showed that negative press surrounding controversial games actually encourages sales."

Feenix, want Chilli Sauce with that?

So, not a lot to blog about today. Had a crap day at work and posted a Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta Retrospective up on BXB.

So, to replace my normal blog enrty, I have this amusing picture I made...



Got the picture of the dude from CliffyB's Blog and slapped it over a picture of a kebab house. Made me laugh!

Gaming Frustrations...

Man, I'm slightly annoyed at all the games I'm playing at the minute and being not annoyed at them is going to take some effort.

Guitar Hero 2 - This is pissing me off because I'm stuck on a whole bunch of songs on medium. I'm trying to five star all the tracks but some are really tricky. I'm slowling getting my head around hammer on and pull offs what keeps messing me up is when you got a long string of the same note repeated over and over. I keep losing my rhythm with it randomly.

Halo 2 (PC) - It keeps signing me out of Live and I've already not been awarded the achievement for completing the 'Oracle' level and I'm going to have to replay it. I also got over half way through Delta Halo before it disconnected again. I tried to reconnect but when I reloaded the game it was right back at the beginning.

Commander and Conquer: Tiberium Wars - Just completed the GDI campaign by using the liquid tiberium bomb and I got the ending where you don't use it. What the frak?

See, individually, minor gripes, mix them all together and I'm just annoyed.

*Rant over*

Codemasters Love BXB!

So, we had our Colin McRae: DiRT review up yesterday, just as the embargo was lifted.

It did us good. We were the top viewed story on Newsnow and have also been featured on the Codemaster's website. Have a look-see here!

Codemasters have been great with the review code for DiRT as they got retail playable to us over two weeks before release meaning we had plenty of time to review the game and get it published.

So, kudos to Codemasters for sorting this out so well and I hope the same happens with Overlord as well. It's a shame that not all publishers can offer the same level of support with retail review code but different companies have different processes and I guess we just have to cope with them.

At the end of the day, Codemasters have secured bigger and better coverage from our site because of how much they've supported us and due to the fact DiRT is a wicked game.

We'll have a competition to win one of three copies up soon!

"Out of Office..."

When spamming publishers, developers and other industry types my e-mail account is usually rammed with "Out of Office" replies. None of them are ever funny.

Someone should do a funny "OoO" reply one day. It'd be great. Sometimes they tell me they have some blackberries and will be checking their e-mail on those, which sounds pretty impressive for fruit, but it's mostly pretty dull stuff like: "I'm Out of the Office until June 11th and will not be answering any calls".

On other occasions, it states that they'll be back in the office at the point I'm actually e-mailing them, which normally means they've left their Auto-Reply on, switched on their answer phone and may well be chatting up one of the many fit PR girls that inhabit the world or just playing Mine Sweeper.

I'm not that cool.

My "OoO" reply would read: I'm currently out of my bedroom and won't be answering my e-mails until I get back from work at Tesco and have had my dinner."

Slick Mike, slick.

Something You Don't Tell Your Clan

So, I was sitting and watching Xleague.tv the other night and they had some tournament on with eight gamers fighting it out in the Halo 3 Beta.

They played rumble slayer on all three maps and there were a few comedy moments including some hilarious grenade throwing and some of the worst commentary we've ever heard. At one point the commentator exclaimed: "What a great reload!"

At least we could laugh at the commentators, the presenters on the show were pretty stale including some dude from CVG who had fluff in his hair. I'm a famous telly-visual star now, get me on the show!

I actually got a rather pointless invite down to the Xleague.tv studios a few weeks ago but couldn't go because of UbiDays being more important.

What really made us laugh though was one of the gamers playing had a bit of a funny name that he really shouldn't be telling people about. His gamer tag is Ang3l (note the l33t 3 'and E' because he bought Xbox Live too late to get a decent tag) but his real name can be seen the photo we took of the TV when his "profile" was up.



That's right, his name is Da N00b! We laughed hard. Nice hat mate.

Gamecock. Seriously...

So, Gamecock Media Group. Now, I've got to say it's not what I'd say as a great name for a gaming company. I mean, use of the word "cock" is pretty silly in almost every single situation I can think of.

Including it as the name of your company, which has to go on top of formal things likes letter heads, business cards and press releases, will only lead to incongruious sniggers. So, when things couldn't get worse this hits Gamepress.

Cockpit, Austin, Texas – June 7, 2007 – Today Gamecock Media Group announced Firefly Studios’ Dungeon Hero will be releasing on the PC and Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The first dungeon-based game to realistically depict underground life, Dungeon Hero promises all the danger, intrigue and daily routine of an actual subterranean community. Combining HD graphics with incredibly detailed environments completely immerses players in their newfound surroundings, complete with goblin cheese merchants, jailed troll miners and helpful imps just looking for peace.

“Dungeon Hero sets itself apart from every dungeon game that has come before it,” said Rick Stults, Console Chief for Gamecock Media Group. “We love the realism that the game portrays, the living breathing dungeon aspect is something unique that hasn’t been done anywhere before and that’s the key to the innovation we’re looking to promote.”

Dungeon Hero provides players with a fresh take on the classic dungeon based game. The in-game world is a totally functional, living, breathing community in every way. Eat, sleep, chat, socialize, trade and travel as you would in any civilized place – after all dungeon creatures are people too! Fierce adrenaline pumping close quarters combat against a multitude of enemies drives the player deep into their heroic role. The battle system is intense with savage encounters that will leave enemies wondering where they went wrong. Dark times call for one to stand against many, will you be the one strong enough to become the Hero of the Dungeon?

Ok, so all the sections I highlighted in BOLD are the bits I found amusing. To be honest, I only remember Dungeon Keeper and that was a pretty good games. So maybe I'm wrong to mock.

Gamercock. *sniggers* Goblin Cheese Merchants...*sniggers*

They are also based in Cockpit, Texas. *sniggers*

BXB Community Day 2007

Paintball. It's for pussies. If you want to find out what war is really like then you'll have to join Britxbox.co.uk's latest Community Day in association with Warfighters.

Warfighters is so damn realistic and exciting that we're not even bothering to get any Xbox 360s at the event because, frankly, it'd distract from driving around in hummers and tanks. BXB's Community Day 2007 is the chance to have a go at the latest war simulation as well as putting faces to the names of people in the Community you visit every day.

BXB's 2007 Community Day will be taking place on Friday August 31st at Willoughby near Rubgy in Warwickshire just a few miles away from J17 of the M1 and will begin at 9:30am and run until 4:30pm. Click here for maps and pictures of the events locaion.

The day will cost you £49.99, which includes a £10 discount on the full price and for your money you'll get a whole day of combat action without any of the hidden costs of paint ball or the bruises. For more information on what you get for your money, check out the Warfighters FAQ.

Michael Rossell, Editor and Events Manager said: “So, I bet you're asking why there aren't any Xbox 360s at this event? Well, to be honest, we got fed up of lugging massive TVs around and getting funny looks from attractive female sports students and decided to do something a bit more exciting than camping out in a darkened room for 11 hours.

“Warfighters is awesome. I was lucky enough to go to the recent Ubisoft GRAW 2 press day at Warfighters and was treated to a short taster of what it's like and I've got to say I really enjoyed it.

“The idea behind this Community Event is that it's like one of those annoying “Team Building” days you get sent on with your job except it's more exciting because you actually want to meet the people you'll be going with. It's a chance to put a face to the voice of your best Xbox Live buddy and secure ultimate bragging rights by shooting them in a very realistic combat scenario.”

Dave Thatcher, a slightly scary dude from Warfighters said: “Prepare for a challenging day of GRAW like missions and team objectives that will test your online gaming skills in the real world to the max!”

Click here to send an e-mail to mike@britxbox.co.uk and apply.

You'll then recieve an e-mail with a URL and login details to access the Warfighter website and book your places. Only two places are available per application, one and one guest, and receipt of the e-mail doesn't mean you'll get a spot on the day. You'll have to book as soon as possible to secure that.

Click here to check out our coverage of the GRAW 2 Community Day!

Head-Cam video footage from the Warfighters and Ubisoft Ghost Recon event taken by Clint from www.xboxgamezone.co.uk.

The Warfighters Official Website

Proper Famous Me!

So, after my awesome TV appearance yesterday (and on a repeat today) I've been bombarded with sexy fan mail from fitties from across the world!

Ok, so maybe that's a lie but I have had a surprising amount of people say to me that they saw me on the telly. People at work, friends and forum well wishers have all mentioned that they saw me.

Man, I love being on a proper TV show on a proper TV channel. It's cool.

Me on the Telly...Part 2

Reactions to my Gamer.tv appearance...

Well, it seems that my comments on Gamer.tv have struck a chord with someone as I've had a really quite amazing e-mail.

Hi Mike

I've just seen the episode of Gamer TV with you in it and I would just like to say well done its about time someone in the press has had the balls to truly say that they ever like or dislike a game, what makes it some what more cooler was the fact you were honest about the games at an event hosted by the publishers. It's been far too long that every thing has been hyper sterilised and processed in a way to dumb down what the consumer really want to know which is if it's really worth spending my hard earned cash on a game or not. I would just like to say again well done and I salute you for it.

Josh

Thanks for your very kind words Josh, I've always tried to tell the truth and be honest about things whether it's to my detriment or not.

I hope it's not those pesky "other Joypod" guys winding me up again!

Me on the Telly...

So, I woke up this morning nursing the increasingly common Sunday morning hang over, clambered out of bed and into my brothers room to watch Gamer.tv.

At the Ubidays event I was filmed giving some thoughts and opinions on the games featured by a Gamer.tv camera dude so I was looking out for their Ubidays Special in case they used my comments.

Well, they did. I checked the Sky Guide before it started and saw it was the Ubidays Special and set it to record and much to my surprise they used me quite a lot.

They've got me moaning about Brothers in Arms; being all cynical about Rayman Raving Rabbids 2; calling Jade Raymond a "fittie" and talking about how much we didn't get to play Assassins Creed.

To be honest, I was surprised they used anything I said because other than gushing about Naruto and End Wars, I was generally quite negative plus it was before I got into the games area and saw some of the titles so didn't have a great deal to say.

I'll see if I can sort out a video on Youtube!

Traffic for May 2007

I think the title says it all...

Britxbox.co.uk, Leicester, UK, 01 June 2007 - One of the UK's leading Xbox Community sites, www.britxbox.co.uk, today announced that traffic figures for the month of May 2007 have been the strongest results since resuming traffic tracking in January this year and have exceeded their expectations.

Britxbox.co.uk has recorded a total of 65,033 unique hits which have created 588,245 page views with an average daily unique hits sitting at 2097 with 20,889 visitors returning to BXB over 201 times over the last 31 days.

Ashley Allen, Director for Britxbox.co.uk commented: “We've been getting just under sixty thousand unique hits a month so far this year and with E3 downscaling and moving to June we were expecting similar results this month.

“However, our involvement with the Halo 3 Beta Competition as well as our coverage of the Ubidays event has helped pushed our number of unique visitors up by over 8 per cent.”

Michael Rossell, Editor and Events Manager said: “Our content continues to remain strong this month thanks to the Ubidays event and our coverage of the release of the Halo 3 Beta.

“Moving forward, we'll be announcing a new Community Day shortly as well as continuing to push our successful and exciting Monthly Community Contribution Awards which has now been supported by big name publishers like Capcom, Codemasters, Activision and Microsoft Game Studios.”

If you'd like any more information on www.britxbox.co.uk or would like to get involved with the Community Awards and forthcoming Community Day please drop an e-mail to mike@britxbox.co.uk.

Things seem to be on the up and up but with the summer months ahead, I expect they may fall off again.